Figure Co-Founder: Asset-Backed Finance Faces Challenges in On-Chain Migration

Figure co-founder and executive chairman Mike Cagney stated that while DeFi is well-suited for Asset-Backed Finance (ABF) to improve collateral management and self-custody, a $6 trillion market remains largely off-chain. Cagney identified five barriers to traditional finance adoption: poor user interfaces compared to retail apps like Robinhood and SoFi, difficulties in balancing qualified custody with recoverable self-custody, the need for multi-user and multi-wallet institutional features, evolving regulatory clarity, and the necessity for programmatic KYC